Afternoon Drive with Xolani Gwala

ANC HQ yesterday cautioned people about speaking in public relating to the NPA decision to charge Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan with fraud. Luthuli House seemed to say nothing about the decision.

Since then ANC Chief Whip Jackson Mthembu, Gauteng Premier David Makhura and Gauteng Finance MEC Barbara Creecy have all backed Pravin Gordhan - while the ANC Women's League have come out in support of the NPA.

Unisa political analyst Professor Lesiba Teffo, says these different voices show the clear factional divisions in the ruling party.

Their conduct seems to be saying to me, increasingly, more people are likely to be alienated from the ruling party. In short they are not doing themselves any good at all. If anything, they are campaigning inadvertently for the opposition parties.

— Professor Lesiba Teffo, politcal analyst Unisa

Is the ANC going to split?

It's already split - but what we don't have is a formal split.

— Professor Lesiba Teffo, politcal analyst Unisa

Teffo says the ANC is never going to agree on who to field as a final candidate in 2019.

He says ANC leaders need to speak out. Silence becomes collusion and is no longer an option. We need to be working in the interests of South Africa as a whole, he pleaded.